5-11-08 Mother’s Day

Now, my Mother’s Day post could be more of the snarky, buck-the-zeitgeist shtick that you’ve come to know and possibly love. But… with my father spending Mother’s Day in a Florida hospital so he can take care of his mother… somehow the snarky thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

But buck-the-zeitgeist? Oh yeah. We’re definitely staying with that.

So, instead of something cutesy, my Mother’s Day post is in keeping with the original, anti-war and peaceful intention of Mother’s Day (at least in the United States), which Shanoah brought to my attention in his Mother’s Day post.

Your first offering is John Lennon’s Imagine… one of the most beautiful anti-war, anti-anything songs ever made. Is such a future naïve? Maybe. But it’s a hell of a lot better than the endless oil and food wars we have to look forward to.

Courtesy of Sethtann.

Your second Mother’s Day song is The Byrds’ Turn! Turn! Turn! which, as you probably know, is taken almost word-for-word from the Bible – specifically Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. The Byrds weren’t the first to record Turn! Turn! Turn! Pete Seeger wrote it way back in the 1950s, and it was recorded by the Limeliters and by Judy Collins before the Byrds’ 1965 version. But the Byrds were the ones who made the song a hit.

Turn! Turn! Turn! is actually not the anti-war song that everyone makes it out to be: there is a time for war and a time for peace, for love and for hate. The point is that, though there may be a time for war, it’s not all the time, no matter what our politicians and talking heads (who I’m positive got all their foreign policy training from Risk and Command and Conquer) might tell you. It’s a beautiful song that brings with it the weight of the Bible and the word of God… and since we are after all a Christian nation (or so I keep hearing we are), we oughta listen to it, right?

Courtesy of woodenshipsjp.

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Mothers Day

Well, here we are on the second Sunday in May once again, which in the US is Mothers Day. A holiday created by Anna Jarvis, who, ironically, became so embittered about the crass commercialism of this day that, 9 years later, she spent the rest of her life protesting it.

It was originally an antiwar holiday, if you can believe it. It feels strange to shift back and forth like this, after yesterdays hot thespian action, but I thought I’d play a few videos on the theme. First off, a song you should know. Or, at least, Your Mother Should Know:

Your Mother Should Know – The Beatles

This classic Beatles clip is from the Magical Mystery Tour.

Mother & Child Reunion – Paul Simon

I’ve always had a spot in my heart both for Paul Simon, and Simon & Garfunkel’s music. Think this song is off of Negotiations & Love Songs, IIRC. An album I remember for “Me and Julio Down In The Schoolyard”, among others.

Mother – John Lennon

This song, being all about saying goodbye, is a natural counterbalance to the last song. Incredible singing and emotion. This story actually has a lot of backstory to it, and is about his childhood; his mother leaving him to be raised by his aunt, and her later death. This song is said to have come from his therapy about his childhood. Oh, and those are photos of his mother and father, btw…

In fact, while I was going to leave it at that, why don’t I throw in another John Lennon song and swing it a little more upbeat:

Julia – The Beatles (Well, mainly John Lennon)

Julia, incidentally, was John mother. Just so you know, this post could easily have been twice as long. If it hadn’t had a copy of Mother tacked on the end that I didn’t like as well, and been so depressing, I might have posted John Lennon’s “My Mummys Dead”, which is terribly beautiful.

Also, if embedding hadn’t been disabled on it, Beth Hart’s “Mama” would have definitely made this list. She has an amazing voice. I really need to post something by her sometime…

5-10-08 Grand Theft Lunch

So this is what all that fuss in GTA IV is about. Courtesy of hogwild (Web site here).